Australia: dog receives communion at ‘Inclusive Catholics’ Mass
August 06, 2012
Communion was distributed to a dog at a August 5 liturgical celebration of “Inclusive Catholics,” a Melbourne movement launched by Father Greg Reynolds, a suspended archdiocesan priest.
After calling for women’s ordination in a 2010 homily, Father Reynolds had his faculties suspended by Archbishop Denis Hart and resigned his pastorate. He currently organizes services for a varied group of disaffected Catholics. A woman led the service, The Age reported, while Father Reynolds "played as small a role as he could."
It seems unlikely, therefore, that the ceremony was a valid Mass, or that the bread was actually consecrated. Nevertheless The Ager reported that the congregation gasped when one participant administered communion to a dog. Archbishop Hart issued a statement saying “that anyone would feed the Eucharist to a dog is an abomination.” In an angry protest to The Age, the archbishop said that the paper's report on the ceremony "can only be understood as an attempt to hold Catholicism up to ridicule."
“Up to 40” people attend Father Reynolds’s ceremonies, which are held in Protestant churches, according to a leading Australian newspaper.
One of those in attendance was Michael Kelly of the Rainbow Sash movement. Praising Father Reynolds for “break[ing] through the intimidation and threats and oppression of a very frightened institution,” Kelly said that “there’s a sense of hopelessness and despair when you look at the hierarchy … Intelligent, educated, adult Catholics have had enough.”
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Further information:
- Dissidents preach a new breed of Catholicism (The Age)
- Archbishop Hart protests ridicule of Catholicism's defining belief (CathNews)
- Australian priest challenges Church authority on women's ordination (CWN, 11/24/10)
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Posted by: tjbenjamin -
Aug. 07, 2012 4:00 PM ET USA
I believe I am an intelligent, educated, adult Catholic. When I hear of supposedly Catholic people like Mr. Kelly attempting to destroy the Church, which is the Body of Christ, THEN I feel hopelessness and despair, but not for the Church. I'm concerned for Mr. Kelly and the people he may influence.
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Posted by: aclune9083 -
Aug. 06, 2012 10:45 PM ET USA
We must all pray that the members of this, the newest branch of the Protestant church, will see the folly of their ways and repent. Only this and the mercy of God can save them now, since they have rejected His word.
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Posted by: Sister Millicent -
Aug. 06, 2012 9:52 PM ET USA
This is a natural progression of the Protestant Reformation with its rejection of the Eucharist. Why would any sensitive Protestant church permit such an event in its premises?
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Posted by: normnuke -
Aug. 06, 2012 3:13 PM ET USA
'Intelligent, educated, adult Catholics have had enough.' Aye, of people like you, Mr. Kelly
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Posted by: AgnesDay -
Aug. 06, 2012 12:02 PM ET USA
So when is the Archbishop going to excommunicate these people?
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Posted by: wojo425627 -
Aug. 06, 2012 12:01 PM ET USA
I heard a similar story a few years ago, although i think it occured at an episcopalian church. It's still an abomination though and an utter mockery of our lords sacrifice and suffering for man. These people are truly "post-christian" to parphrase the lcwr. They have no idea who our Lord Jesus is anymore. They are unconcious of the sacred.
